Book Preview My dear James You have always been one of the most faithful and kindly of my readers, and I was therefore seriously perturbed when I received from you a word of criticism. You complained that my murders were getting too refined—anaemic, in fact. You yearned for a ‘good violent murder with lots of … Read more
Book Preview HERCULE POIROT’S CASEBOOK Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her seventy-six detective novels and books of stories have been translated into every major language, and her sales are calculated in tens of millions. She began writing at the end of the First World War, when she created … Read more
Book Preview Although it was published in November 1956, the Hercule Poirot novel Dead Man’s Folly had a complicated two-year genesis. In November 1954 Agatha Christie’s agent Hughes Massie wrote to the Diocesan Board of Finance in Exeter explaining that his client would like to see stained glass windows in the chancel of Churston Ferrers … Read more
Book Preview One Mrs. Ariadne Oliver had gone with the friend with whom she was staying, Judith Butler, to help with the preparations for a children’s party which was to take place that same evening. At the moment it was a scene of chaotic activity. Energetic women came in and out of doors moving chairs, … Read more
Book Preview It was the opening night of London’s new National Opera House and consequently an occasion. Royalty was there. The Press were there. The fashionable were there in large quantities. Even the musical, by hook and by crook, had managed to be there – mostly very high up in the final tier of seats … Read more
Book Preview Introduction CARLA LEMARCHANT Hercule Poirot looked with interest and appreciation at the young woman who was being ushered into the room. There had been nothing distinctive in the letter she had written. It had been a mere request for an appointment, with no hint of what lay behind that request. It had been … Read more
Book Preview One When Captain Roger Angmering built himself a house in the year 1782 on the island off Leathercombe Bay, it was thought the height of eccentricity on his part. A man of good family such as he was should have had a decorous mansion set in wide meadows with, perhaps, a running stream … Read more
Book Preview Every Night and every Morn Some to Misery are born. Every Morn and every Night Some are born to Sweet Delight, Some are born to Sweet Delight, Some are born to Endless Night, William Blake Auguries of Innocence Every Night and every Morn Some to Misery are born. Every Morn and every Night … Read more
Book Preview Chapter 1 A Literary Luncheon Mrs Oliver looked at herself in the glass. She gave a brief, sideways look towards the clock on the mantel-piece, which she had some idea was twenty minutes slow. Then she resumed her study of her coiffure. The trouble with Mrs Oliver was – and she admitted it … Read more
Book Preview One THE MISTRESS OF LITTLEGREEN HOUSE Miss Arundell died on May 1st. Though her illness was short her death did not occasion much surprise in the little country town of Market Basing where she had lived since she was a girl of sixteen. For Emily Arundell was well over seventy, the last of … Read more
Book Preview “Double Sin” was first published as “By Road or Rail” in the Sunday Dispatch, 23 September 1928. I had called in at my friend Poirot’s rooms to find him sadly overworked. So much had he become the rage that every rich woman who had mislaid a bracelet or lost a pet kitten rushed … Read more
Book Preview The man behind the desk moved a heavy glass paperweight four inches to the right. His face was not so much thoughtful or abstracted as expressionless. He had the pale complexion that comes from living most of the day in artificial light. This man, you felt, was an indoor man. A man of … Read more
Book Preview Author’s Foreword Death on the Nile was written after coming back from a winter in Egypt. When I read it now I feel myself back again on the steamer from Assuan to Wadi Halfa. There were quite a number of passengers on board, but the ones in this book travelled in my mind … Read more
Book Preview Passengers Seat No. 2 Madame Giselle No. 4 James Ryder No. 5 Monsieur Armand Dupont No. 6 Monsieur Jean Dupont No. 8 Daniel Clancy No. 9 Hercule Poirot No. 10 Doctor Bryant No. 12 Norman Gale No. 13 The Countess of Horbury No. 16 Jane Grey No. 17 The Hon. Venetia Kerr Seat … Read more
Book Preview TO PROFESSOR S.R.K. GLANVILLE Dear Stephen, It was you who originally suggested to me the idea of a detective story set in Ancient Egypt, and but for your active help and encouragement this book would never have been written. I want to say here how much I have enjoyed all the interesting literature … Read more
Book Preview One I It was Miss Lemon, Poirot’s efficient secretary, who took the telephone call. Laying aside her shorthand notebook, she raised the receiver and said without emphasis, “Trafalgar 8137.” Hercule Poirot leaned back in his upright chair and closed his eyes. His fingers beat a meditative soft tattoo on the edge of the … Read more
Book Preview Chapter 1 I Who is there who has not felt a sudden startled pang at reliving an old experience, or feeling an old emotion? ‘I have done this before . . .’ Why do those words always move one so profoundly? That was the question I asked myself as I sat in the … Read more
Book Preview Author’s Foreword This book is one of my own special favourites. I saved it up for years, thinking about it, working it out, saying to myself: “One day, when I’ve plenty of time, and want to really enjoy myself—I’ll begin it!” I should say that of one’s output, five books are work … Read more